Mother who left son, 12, on his own went on skiing trip

A mother who left her 12-year-old son at home alone for 16 days and spent a week at an Austrian ski resort was in hospital last night after she was arrested.

Jill Parker, 53, who has a history of depression, was detained on Sunday night at the hotel above a pub in south London where she had fled after telling her son, Rufus Polak, that she needed a break.

Scotland Yard said Ms Parker, who uses her maiden name, had been released on bail after her arrest on suspicion of child neglect and was attending a London hospital as a voluntary in-patient.

Rufus, who had managed to keep his mother's absence a secret until last Thursday by feeding and clothing himself and attending his £9,000-a-year school, was staying with relatives.

A spokeswoman for Wandsworth Borough Council said: "Health service staff will make a fuller assessment of Ms Parker's health over the next few days. Rufus will remain with relatives until we are sure of the family's longer-term needs." It was understood he had not yet been reunited with his mother, although he can visit her in Springfield University Hospital, a psychiatric unit in Tooting, south London.

Ms Parker behaved erratically after she left their £750,000 home in Battersea, south London, on 7 December.

Plane ticket stubs and a handwritten note were discovered in Ms Parker's room at the Brewers Inn hotel, in nearby Wandsworth, where she arrived five days later and stayed for three nights.

One ticket was for a British Airways flight from London to Madrid, arriving on the same day she checked in at the £50-a-night Brewers Inn.

A further stub was found for an easyJet flight from London to Zurich on 15 December, with details of a booking for accommodation at the Austrian Alps resort of St Anton.

Skiworld, an independent travel company, confirmed a booking for a seven-night stay at the Regina Chalet in St Anton from a Ms P J Parker at a cost of £509. The operator said its manager at the resort had recognised Ms Parker as the arrested woman.

It is thought that her disappearance was set off by a recurrence of depression caused by the second anniversary of the death of her husband, James, a travel company director, of a heart attack.